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The Pensacola Mountains are a large group of
mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have ari ...
s of the Transantarctic Mountains System, located in the
Queen Elizabeth Land Queen Elizabeth Land is a portion of mainland Antarctica named by the government of the United Kingdom and claimed as part of the British Antarctic Territory, which is the largest of the 14 British Overseas Territories. Situated south of Wedd ...
region of
Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...
.


Geography

They extend 450 km (280 mi) in a NE-SW direction. Subranges of the Pensacola Mountains include: Argentina Range, Forrestal Range,
Dufek Massif Dufek Massif, Augusto Pinochet Massif or Santa Teresita Massif is a rugged, largely snow-covered massif long, standing west of the Forrestal Range in the northern part of the Pensacola Mountains. It was discovered and photographed on January 13, 1 ...
,
Cordiner Peaks The Cordiner Peaks are a group of peaks extending over an area of , standing southwest of Dufek Massif in the northern part of the Pensacola Mountains. They were discovered and photographed on January 13, 1956, in the course of a transcontinental ...
, Neptune Range, Patuxent Range, Rambo Nunataks and Pecora Escarpment. These mountain units lie astride the extensive
Foundation Ice Stream Foundation Ice Stream is a major ice stream in Antarctica's Pensacola Mountains. The ice stream drains northward for along the west side of the Patuxent Range and the Neptune Range to enter the Ronne Ice Shelf westward of Dufek Massif. The U ...
and Support Force Glacier which drain northward to the Ronne Ice Shelf. ;Naming Discovered and photographed on 13 January 1956 in the course of a transcontinental nonstop plane flight by personnel of
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
Operation Deep Freeze Operation Deep Freeze (OpDFrz or ODF) is codename for a series of United States missions to Antarctica, beginning with "Operation Deep Freeze I" in 1955–56, followed by "Operation Deep Freeze II", "Operation Deep Freeze III", and so on. (There ...
I from McMurdo Sound to Weddell Sea and return. Named by
US-ACAN The Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (ACAN or US-ACAN) is an advisory committee of the United States Board on Geographic Names responsible for recommending commemorative names for features in Antarctica. History The committee was established ...
for the U.S. Naval Air Station,
Pensacola, Florida Pensacola () is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle, and the county seat and only incorporated city of Escambia County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 54,312. Pensacola is the principal c ...
, in commemoration of the historic role of that establishment in training aviators of the U.S. Navy. The mountains were mapped in detail by
USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...
from surveys and US Navy air photos, 1956–67.


Geology

The Pensacola Mountains were originally continuous with the Ventana Mountains near
Bahía Blanca Bahía Blanca (; English: White Bay) is a city in the southwest of the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, by the Atlantic Ocean, and is the seat of government of the Bahía Blanca Partido. It had 301,572 inhabitants according to the . It is th ...
in
Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...
,
Cape Fold Belt The Cape Fold Belt is a fold and thrust belt of late Paleozoic age, which affected the sequence of sedimentary rock layers of the Cape Supergroup in the southwestern corner of South Africa. It was originally continuous with the Ventana Mount ...
in
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...
, the Ellsworth Mountains (West Antarctica) and the
Hunter-Bowen orogeny The Hunter-Bowen Orogeny was a significant arc accretion event in the Permian and Triassic periods affecting approximately 2,500 km of the Australian continental margin. The Hunter-Bowen Orogeny occurred in two main phases, a Permian accreti ...
in eastern
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
. The
Ordovician The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago (Mya) to the start of the Silurian Period Mya. T ...
-
Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, wh ...
Neptune Group rests
unconformably An unconformity is a buried erosional or non-depositional surface separating two rock masses or strata of different ages, indicating that sediment deposition was not continuous. In general, the older layer was exposed to erosion for an interval ...
on a Cambrian succession, and is overlain disconformably by the Dover
Sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicat ...
of the Beacon Supergroup. Within the Neptune Group is the Brown Ridge
Conglomerate Conglomerate or conglomeration may refer to: * Conglomerate (company) * Conglomerate (geology) * Conglomerate (mathematics) In popular culture: * The Conglomerate (American group), a production crew and musical group founded by Busta Rhymes ** ...
, Elliott Sandstone, Elbow
Formation Formation may refer to: Linguistics * Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes * Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes Mathematics and science * Cave formation or speleothem, a secondar ...
, and the Heiser Sandstone.


Features

Geographical features include:


Neptune Range


Williams Hills


Schmidt Hills


Other features


Forrestal Range


Patuxent Range


Anderson Hills


Thomas Hills


Other features


Argentina Range


Schneider Hills


Panzarini Hills


Other features


Cordiner Peaks


Rambo Nunataks


Pecora Escarpment


Dufek Massif


Boyd Escarpment


Other features


Other Pensacola Mountains features

* Academy Glacier * Edge Rocks * Ferrell Nunatak *
Ford Massif Ford Massif is a broad, snow-topped massif long and wide, forming the major topographic landmark of the northern Thiel Mountains in Antarctica. The massif rises to , is essentially flat, and terminates in steep rock cliffs in all but the souther ...
* Himmelberg Hills * Iroquois Plateau * Kester Peaks *
Taylor Nunatak Taylor Nunatak () is a large nunatak at the east side of Shackleton Glacier, just south of the terminus of Dick Glacier, in the Queen Maud Mountains. Named by the Southern Party of New Zealand Geological Survey Antarctic Expedition (NZGSAE) (1961� ...


Further reading

* Gunter Faure, Teresa M. Mensing,
The Transantarctic Mountains: Rocks, Ice, Meteorites and Water
', P 233 * M.J.Bentley, A.S.Hein, D.E.Sugden, P.L.Whitehouse, R.Shanks, S.Xu, S.P.H.T.Freeman,
Deglacial history of the Pensacola Mountains, Antarctica from glacial geomorphology and cosmogenic nuclide surface exposure dating
', Quaternary Science Reviews Volume 158, 15 February 2017, Pages 58–76, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.09.028 * JOHN C. BEHRENDT, JOHN R. HENDERSON, LAURENT ElSTER, and WILLIAM L. RAMBO,
Geophysical Investigations of the Pensacola Mountains and Adjacent Glacierized Areas of Antarctica
', GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 844 * Curtis, M. (2002),
Palaeozoic to Mesozoic polyphase deformation of the Patuxent Range, Pensacola Mountains, Antarctica
', Antarctic Science, 14(2), 175–183. https://doi:10.1017/S0954102002000743 * Myrl E. Beck, ''Palaeomagnetism and Magnetic Polarity Zones in the Jurassic Dufek Intrusion, Pensacola Mountains, Antarctica'', Geophysical Journal International, Volume 28, Issue 1, May 1972, Pages 49–63, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246X.1972.tb06110.x * Hodgson, Dominic A Bentley, Michael J,
Lake highstands in the Pensacola Mountains and Shackleton Range 4300–2250 cal. yr BP: Evidence of a warm climate anomaly in the interior of Antarctica
', https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683612460790 * Karolien Peeters (UGent), Dominic A Hodgson, Peter Convey and Anne Willems (UGent),
Culturable diversity of heterotrophic bacteria in Forlidas Pond (Pensacola Mountains) and Lundström Lake (Shackleton Range), Antarctica
', (2011) MICROBIAL ECOLOGY. 62(2). p. 399-413


References

{{Authority control Mountain ranges of Queen Elizabeth Land Transantarctic Mountains